Empire: Total War Developer Diary 3

SEGA has released the third developer diary for
their upcoming strategy game, Empire: Total War. Read the diary in its entirety
below.

The Wars of Empire: Diary 3

It’s now time to turn a bleary and gin-sodden eye
(drinking gin is a large part of “method designing” for Empire Total War) to
matters military in the 18th century and in particular land warfare in the
period. I can promise that the next few installments are not going to be a
detailed history lesson – hurrah! – but more a gallop through the subject –
huzzah! – while backhanding matters of interest with a saber – swish! – from
time to time.

So what happens to armies and warfare during the
Empire period? That depends on the army, and even the continent, involved in
warfare. The French and English/British still fought like two cats in a sack,
but where they fought was very different. Their soldiers would face each other
in the Rhineland, the backwoods of America and the steamy heat of India. This is
a function of what today is termed “power projection” (or “putting your army in
some other blokes’ country and making an awful mess over there”). This was what
the Europeans learned to do during the 18th century: they could ship troops
halfway round the world and fight on their own terms. Doing this involved naval
power (so that’s why there are naval battles in Empire: Total War!), and that’s
a subject for another day; here we’re looking at land warfare.

Firstly, don’t run away with the idea that the
18th Century is one of unbridled expansion for the Europeans, backed up by
muskets, bayonets and the guts to use them effectively. The effectiveness of
European armies varied from decade to decade as lessons in warfare were learned,
copied by enemies, and then discarded in favor of a new idea. European armies
didn’t always have it their own way. In the Balkans, the Turks may have been
slightly old-fashioned but their Janissary armies were no laughing matter for
anyone facing them, even if they could be beaten. In India, more than one nasty
shock awaited the Western invaders as elephants (and what’s a Total War game
these days without some heffalumps?), rockets and imported European artillery
(along with imported European gunners) were turned against them. The cannons
made by Indians weren’t all that bad either, even if they did go in for a lot of
decorative fiddly bits. The use of massed rocket attacks impressed the British
so much that they copied them as the Congreve rocket system, and then turned
them on their own enemies in later wars (without, it has to be said, very much
success). In North America a completely new style of light skirmishing warfare
was required for success in the dense forests of the eastern seaboard. In short,
depending on where you’re fighting, you’ll have a different experience in the
game.

Not only had the nature of warfare changed, but
its context and purposes too. Any medieval monarch could have understood the
“why” of the War of the Spanish Succession: to stop the French Bourbons putting
one of their relatives on the throne of Spain. Less than a hundred years later,
the Bourbons’ problems, guillotine-wise, brought their power to a sudden,
painful and cravat-ruining halt. Once they were gone, the French Republic was
engaged in a very different kind of war of survival. Other powers (for which
read “the rich, powerful and well bred”) wanted the infection of revolutionary
Republicanism cut from the European body politic before it could do any more
damage (the bloody progress of events shocked supporters of the infant
Republic). Napoleon Bonaparte’s seizure of power (and his conscious aping of
Roman precedent) merely confirmed the view that a new, dark tyranny (of the
unwashed masses, if nothing else) that threatened the natural order of things
had arrived. The concept of a war of ideas – republicanism, liberty, patriotism,
tyranny, equality, freedom – had arrived.

If the French Revolution hadn’t happened in
France, the rest of European civilization probably wouldn’t have been so
bothered by the whole business. Hang on, then it would have been the French
Revolution… Still, revolutions are going to be possible; you might even be able
to engineer one. Back to the point: It was almost an article of faith that the
French were the pre-eminent experts in war, and fielded the finest army in
Europe. The French army did suffer defeat on occasion, but it remained a mighty
instrument of policy. It defined “soldiering” for generations: young men who
wished to be soldiers went to France to learn the serious business of killing.
Both of Britain’s greatest generals, John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough
(yes, same family as Winston), and Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington
(yes, the boots man), had French connections early in their careers. Churchill
even received a commendation from Louis XIV for his bravery in leading a forlorn
hope. He might have purchased his first commission from his profits as the
Duchess of Buckingham’s toy boy, but John had guts! Young Arthur was quite a bit
more respectable (or a stuffy prig) as he attended a French military academy
after his schooldays at Eton.

We’ll return to this gallop across land warfare
in the next part of this developer diary. In the meantime, I’m off to polish my
Patriotic Fund sword. Here’s to a bloody battle, or the pox!

Mike Brunton is Writer and Designer on Empire
Total War at The Creative Assembly.